The # 1 rookie mistake to avoid when training.

I’ve grown a lot as a trainer over the past couple of years and I credit that growth to the mistakes I’ve made, courses I’ve attended, the clients I train and the people I choose to learn from and surround myself with. I count myself extremely lucky to be part of a community of fitness enthusiasts, trainers and professionals who live to share their experiences and wealth of knowledge to anyone who seeks it.  A group of people who provide endless support and encouragement to their peers, who share the same morals and are always striving to educate themselves and be the best they can possibly be. In this community a bad training session, failed rep, sluggish set, are all perceived as learning curves. We choose to see the positive and learn from our mistakes rather than beat ourselves up over them and continue to repeat them.

Believe me when I say I’ve had MULTIPLE “learning curves” over the past couple of years. The most significant learning curve I’ve experienced so far (which ended with me admitted to hospital) was in relation to nutrition and training in the lead up to my RKC. As a matter of fact it’s a total “rookie” mistake and I’m almost embarrassed to share it……

The story goes like this……. When I started training with kettlebells I was the cardio queen! Each week, in addition to kettlebells, I would play 1-3 games of hockey on the weekend, rock climb or mountain bike, ride or run to work and back every day, run 7-10km in my lunch break every second day as well as train in boxing and muay thai 2-3 nights a week. (WOW! Just reading that back to myself I shake my head in disbelief and think “what was I thinking and how the hell did I fit all that in”?!)

With the decision to attend RKC came, what was for me, a massive shift in my weekly training regime.  I was to cut out pretty much everything if I wanted to gain the strength in time to perfect my technique and pass. But this, for me, was like trying to get an anorexic girl to eat. I absolutely loathed my current office job and my training was the only thing keeping me sane. There was absolutely no way I could possibly give any of it up. Not even for a couple of months. Advice from my trainer to cut back on all other activities and eat more fell on deaf ears. I continued wasting my energy and recovery time on unnecessary training rather than focusing on the task at hand.

Throughout this time my diet, although healthy, was barely enough to sustain the energy I was exerting each day and my body wasn’t recovering fully over night, but I didn’t think anything of it. I was getting stronger, fitter, faster, injured less…..surely I was on the right track with what I was doing?

It wasn’t until I started having to skip my lunchtime runs to take naps in the park, just so I could stay awake at work in the afternoons, that I realised it was probably time to adhere to my trainers advice. Week by week I slowly started weaning myself off all other training but it was too late. My body was running on empty for so long that it had already switched to survival mode.

The signs of over training slowly started to rear their ugly heads. I couldn’t sleep at night but I was always tired and lethargic, my period became irregular and then non existent, I lost weight, lost strength, the thought of even eating food made me feel sick, but I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to sound like a whinger so I kept it all to myself in the hope that I could rectify the problem on my own. I was wrong.

At work one morning, after my “heavy” session at training, I walked in to the kitchen to heat up my breakfast.  I wasn’t in there for more than 30 seconds before I felt a wave of heat rush from my toes to the top of my head. I felt like I was on fire and was sweating like I was in a sauna. My entire body had broken out in to a bright red splotchy rash!

After a trip to the local medical clinic I was sent home with a packet of antihistamines and the advice that if the rash occurred again or I started to experience breathing difficulties I was to go straight to the hospital. It was no surprise that, before the day was over, I found myself in the local emergency ward being injected with multiple shots of adrenaline.

In my naivety I had run my adrenal glands completely dry. The cause – lack of nutrition and unnecessary over training.

I share this story with you in the hope that you can learn from my mistakes. I learnt this valuable lesson the hard way but it’s a lesson I will NEVER forget. My experience has enabled me to spot the signs of poor nutrition, neural and physical fatigue and manage them accordingly. I’ve learnt to focus on the task at hand and write programs to meet specific goals rather than getting sidetracked by unnecessary training.  In short, it’s made me a smarter trainer and for that I am grateful.